Historical antiquities, in two books the first treating in general of Great-Brettain and Ireland : the second containing particular remarks concerning Cheshire / faithfully collected out of authentick histories, old deeds, records, and evidences, by Sir Peter Leycester, Baronet ; whereunto is annexed a transcript of Doomsday-book, so far as it concerneth Cheshire, taken out of the original record.

CHAP. III.

Of the Picts in Scotland.

THe Name of Pict was first introduced by the Romans, saith Buchanan in his History of Scotland, lib. 2. pag. 54. because these People painted their Bodies with the Pictures of all manner of Living Creatures: It was not their an∣cient Native Name. Herodian saith, Neque vestis usum cognôrunt; sed ventrem & cer∣vicem ferro cingunt, Ornamentum id esse, ac divitiarum argumentum existimârunt, perindè ut aurum caeteri Barbari: They put Iron Plates about their Bellies and Necks, which they reputed an Ornament, and an Argument of Riches, (as other Foreign Nations esteem∣ed Gold) and painted their Bodies with the Forms of all manner of Living Creatures:

Wherefore they put on no Clothes, that they might not hide their Bodies so carved and painted.

Buchanan supposeth them to be originally Scythians, or Getes, pag. 55. Hergust their King dying about the time of Victorinus (Lord Deputy of Brettaine under Honorius the Emperor, who reduced the Picts to the Roman Province about the Year of Christ 412.) forbad them to make any new King, but what should be given them by the Romans; and that it was prophesied of old, That the Picts should be rooted out by the Scots. Buchanan, ibid. pag. 129. And at last Brudus, King of the Picts, not able to compose the Differences already begun between the Picts and the Scots, died for grief; and Drusken his Brother (who was the last King of the Picts) was overthrown in Battel,* 1.1 about the Year of Christ 838. by Kenneth the Second, King of the Scots, and the Picts utterly subdued: Since which time, the Kings of the Scots have been Lords of all Scotland, who before had onely a Part of Scotland.

It is said, That the Nation of the Picts came first out of Scythia into Ireland, and from thence into the North Parts of our Brettaine: So Bede de Hist. Ang. lib. 1. cap. 1. And this (as many will have it) about Anno Christi 78.

Judicious Cambden thinks they were very Brettans, who before the coming of the Romans were seated in the North part of our Island, with such other Brettans who fled unto them, as unwilling to submit to the Roman Servitude: In his Britannia, pag. 82.

For my part, I think the Brettans and the Picts do signifie the same thing; one be∣ing a Greek Name, and the other Latin: This of Latin being given by the Romans in later Times, in distinction from our Brettans of England who submitted to the Roman Government, and were stiled as formerly, and perhaps more civilized by the Romans. Those other more rude, and flying into Scotland, and continually opposing the Romans, were by them called Picti, which Name continued afterwards, I find not the Name of Picti in any Author mentioned, till 300 Years after Christ, and more: And that as well the Brettans, as the Picts, were Peopled from the ancient Galles, and those origi∣nally descended from the Scythians and Getes, as Sheringham de Anglorum Gentis Origine, doth probably demonstrate.

There were also two other sorts of People among the Picts in Scotland, in the time of the Romans; the Maiatae, and the Attacotti, as they were stiled by the Romans: Of whom see Buchanan, lib. 2. pag. 57. and also Cambden's Britannia, pag. 655. & pag. 91. These inhabited the Borders of Scotland.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Buchanan, li. 5. p. ••65, 166.